On Monday, Moscow intensified its operations against Ukraine, shutting off the country’s energy and resulting in the deaths of eight people, including those from kamikaze drone attacks in the capital. At the same time, a Russian warplane crashed not far from the border.
As the hunt for survivors ended on Tuesday, Russian news media reported that at least 13 people, including three children, had died after a military jet crashed into a residential section of Yeysk in southwest Russia.
Moscow is said to be undertaking a punishing strategy of attacking energy infrastructure before winter to balance combat defeats in its eight-month conflict in Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin thinks that this would weaken the opposition.
According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal, Russia attacked energy infrastructure in Sumy and the central Dnipropetrovsk area five times, cutting off power to hundreds of towns and villages.
According to Ukraine, a married couple expecting a child was among the four persons slain in Kyiv, while four more were killed in the Sumy area of the country’s northeast.
Dmytro Kuleba, Russia’s foreign minister, urged EU penalties on Iran after accusing it of giving Moscow drones.
On Monday, as police attempted to fire them down with automatic weapons and smoke rose from explosions around the city, an AFP correspondent observed drones flying low over downtown Kyiv.
The house shook, and I saw a brilliant orange splash, said local Tamara Beroshvili.
The military of Ukraine claimed to have destroyed two Russian cruise missiles and eight drones produced in Iran on Monday.
Iran denies sending any weapons to either side. Still, in the wake of the Kyiv attacks, the United States issued a warning to corporations and countries cooperating with Tehran’s drone program.
READ MORE: NATO regular nuclear deterrence drills in western Europe Amid Russia Tensions
Call for Russia to be ousted from G20.
The assaults occurred precisely one week after Russian missiles barraged Kyiv and other towns on October 10 in the most significant round of recent attacks, leaving at least 19 people dead and 105 injured and inciting outrage worldwide.
Taxi driver Sergiy Prikhodko claimed, “They seem to be striking us every Monday now,” as he waited for a fare outside Kyiv’s central railway station.
He told AFP that “it’s a different way to start the week.”
Before the initial explosion at around 6:35 am (03:35 GMT), air raid sirens began to ring in Kyiv. These sirens were then heard across the majority of the nation.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “Kamikaze drones and missiles are striking all of Ukraine. The adversary may target our cities, but it won’t be able to break us.”
The president said, “Russia will not accomplish anything with this sort of terror even today when we still do not have enough air defense and missile defense systems.”
After the strikes, senior presidential advisor Mykhaylo Podolyak demanded that Russia be banned from the G20.
He made the following statement on social media, demanding that Russia be “expelled from all platforms.
“Those who give orders to attack critical infrastructure, to freeze civilians, and organize total mobilization to cover the frontline with corpses, cannot sit at the same table with leaders of (the) G20,” he said.
NATO training
Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said that the Russian army’s draft offices would shut as of Monday since the city had reached its mobilization limit for enlisting reservists to fight in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it had exchanged more than 100 captives for Russian detainees in what it described as the first all-female exchange with Moscow since the invasion started on February 24.
Every Ukrainian soldier and every front-line commander should keep in mind that the more Russian detainees we have, the sooner we will be able to release our heroes.
NATO started regular nuclear deterrent exercises in western Europe before Russia invaded Ukraine. This was despite pleas to halt the drills when Putin increased his subliminal threats to launch a nuclear strike.
US B-52 long-range bombers will participate in the drills, and up to 60 aircraft will fly practice sorties over Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the North Sea.
As a new combined force is being built up, Belarus, a close friend of Moscow, said that up to 9,000 Russian troops and around 170 tanks would be stationed there to safeguard the country’s borders.
In the south, Ukrainian forces are advancing steadily into the sizable city of Kherson, located just north of Crimea.
One of Moscow’s four Ukrainian areas recently said it had annexed Kherson.